According to a report issued last month (September 24) by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, conducted by HIS Global Insight, "the nation is expected to gain about 11.5 million jobs in the next five years." Unfortunately, many workers are not prepared for those future jobs. So, the mayors and workforce development leaders met to discuss future job needs and ways to shrink the skills gap. (See "Mayors warn of skills gap at Dallas gathering.")

We've all heard that U.S. students need to improve their math and science skills. But, the Institute for the Future and the University of Phoenix published a report, Future Work Skills 2020, which lists ten skills needed for the future workforce: sense-making, social intelligence, novel & adaptive thinking, cross-cultural competency, computational thinking, new-media literacy, transdisciplarity, design mindset, cognitive load management, virtual collaboration.

Which of the ten skills do you have? How are your classes preparing you for the jobs of the future?